OK forgive my lack of knowledge on this.

Why do some riders enter some tours instead of others. For example Tour of Britain instead of Vuelta. Can riders collect more points for say World Chamionship (not really sure how this works) in the different tours,or is it the prestige of certain tours, or is it just because they would prefer one to another,

I know the Wiggins and Cav for example are in the Tour of Britain, which passes very nearby on Monday which is nice 🙂 Why did they not entre the Vuelta. Did they just want to be on Home Soil, or is the Vuelta too challenging for Wiggins 🙂 ( only joking before I get flamed).

Thanks

good question.

is it about picking your battles/you cant win everything. perhaps this year, following a max effort in the TdF then the hazy glory of the Olympics, Wiggins wanted to take his lap of honour in the Tour of Britain

?

Wiggo wanted a bit of a rest after the Tour which is why he didn’t enter the Vuelta.

The World Champs is a one off road race which they should include a similar GB team to the one which entered the Olympics road race.

Why did they not entre the Vuelta.

Cav rode both the Giro and the Tour along with a bunch of smaller stage races. Wiggins rode several shorter stage races before the Tour and won most of them. So both of them had pretty massive seasons by the time they got to the Olympics – now they’re both having a well earned rest. You can see the effect of a long season on Froome, he’s not really at the top of his form any more. Also Wiggins doesn’t especially excel at going up stupidly steep hills, and the Vuelta is pretty much all stupidly steep hills this year, even more than usual, so even if the timing wasn’t a concern he’d probably not be targeting it for a win.

They’re riding the ToB probably more as a sort of lap of honour in their home country than to win the thing, although I expect Cav will probably go for a couple of stage wins like last year.

Lots of reasons, ultimately they ride what the team managers want them to ride. Whilst the Vuelta is a more prestigious race than the ToB it’s better to get a stage win in the ToB or finish high on GC than be anonymous in the Vuelta. The ToB is also getting more popular as a World Champs build-up race as the Vuelta is a lot harder and can leave you fatigued if you do all 3 weeks. Wiggo wouldn’t stand much chance of winning the Vuelta this year, course doesn’t suit him and he’ll be ruined from the season he’s already done – no point him going there to kill himself for a top 10 and ofc Froome was given the chance to lead the Vuelta team in return for supporting Wiggo in the TdF.

Thanks for the replies.
All makes sense.

I thought Team SKY had adopted a ‘keep Wiggo at 95%’ all year round attitude, taken from elite swimming and contrary to the traditional elite cycling where key events are targetted and peaked for.

Has that switched off now the major objective Le Tour has been gained?

Or would the Vuelta have done too much damage to him and actually knocked him a long way off that high percentage target?

Could he have been a good team mate for Froome in Spain?

Wiggo is TdF champ, it wouldn’t look very impressive if he rode the Vuelta and got tonked by Contador et al who weren’t at the TdF.

The main reason though for Wiggo and Cav is that they are the big stars in Team Sky. Sky is a British team and this is their home tour. It’s a case of wheeling them out for the fans and getting good publicity for Sky.

More than one race occurs at the same time. A squad will have about 25 riders, a Grand Tour requires 9 riders per team, smaller tours or one day races will require 6, 7, 8 or 9 riders usually. Some races will suit other riders better than others, riders also need some time off racing for training and a bit of rest.

A team will plan for the whole season and will have a pretty good idea of who is doing what and who is treating what race as a major target. It’ll change slightly throughout the season.